Reliance Money has tied up with payments company PayU India to offer instant app–based personal loans under the LazyPay brand, through Citrus’s mobile application, reports the Economic Times. The service will offer loans in the range of Rs 100 to Rs 1 lakh for tenure extending from 15 days to a maximum of 24 months, depending on the creditworthiness of the individual, the report said. According to Reliance Money, personal loans will be disbursed to salaried and non-salaried customers alike in a paperless manner.

Reliance Money would conduct its one-step due diligence of checking the creditworthiness of the customers and as a measure to keep delinquencies under check, the Non–Banking Finance Company (NBFC) will seek direct debit facility on the customer’s account for loan repayment, the report said quoting Devang Mody, CEO, Reliance Money. The report also added that the service will be available to customers in 110 cities in the country by the end of the third quarter of the year.

PayU’s bets on digital lending

It has to be noted that, last year, PayU announced that it will invest $50 million in LazyPay over the next few years. The company acquired the service when it bought Citrus Pay for $130 million in 2016. In the recent past, PayU has made multiple investments in the digital lending space in India. The company, has pumped in a total of $11.5 million in PaySense after a funding round last month. Prior to that, PayU also infused $3.7 million in ZestMoney, a consumer check out financing startup. Last year, PayU also invested €110 million in German fintech company Kreditech which provides consumer credit scores and underwrites transactions.

Competition in the lending space

LazyPay will compete with players like CoinTribe, PaySense, NeoGrowth, Paytm-backed CreditMate, CASHe, LendingKart, MoneyTap, EarlySalary, Faircent, Loantap, LoanMeet amongst others. Last month, digital payments company MobiKwik also announced the launch of a new service that will offer instant loans of Rs. 5000 on its application.

In regards to speculated launches, California-based fintech company Tala said that it was also bringing its lending app to India, while reports claimed that Flipkart is all set to enter the financial services space with a focus on offering credit and insurance products to both consumers and sellers on its platform. Paytm is also reportedly trying to enter the lending space and is seeking a license from the central bank to become a peer-to-peer lending platform.